the imitation of Christ, the 2nd book: chapter i (admonitions concerning the inner life)

OF THE INWARD LIFE “Why do you cast your eyes hither and thither, since this is not the place of your rest? In heaven ought your habitation to be, and all earthly things should be looked upon as it were in the passing by. All things pass away, and you, equally with them. Look that [...]

the imitation of Christ, the 1st book: chapter xvi and xvii (bearing the faults of others; a religious life)

OF BEARING WITH THE FAULTS OF OTHERS “Those things which a man cannot amend in himself or in others, he ought patiently to bear, until God shall otherwise ordain. Bethink you that perhaps it is better for your trial and patience, without which our merits are but little worth. Nevertheless, you ought, when you find [...]

isis unveiled, vol 2: chapter iv (gnostic ophites)

"Later, when all these extraordinary blunders, contradictions, dissensions, and inventions were forcibly crammed into a frame elaborately executed by the episcopal caste of the new religion, and called Christianity; and the chaotic picture itself cunningly preserved from too close scrutiny by a whole array of formidable Church penances and anathemas, which kept the curious back [...]